Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System

We all can benefit from some immune-boosting tips, especially since flu season is near its peak. And, given that substance abuse wreaks havoc on your immune system, people in recovery may want to go the extra mile to keep their bodies going strong. But beyond getting the flu shot, what can you do to fend off illness? 

Here are some everyday ways to boost your immune system this season and beyond.

• Eat a rainbow of colors. The brighter the colors, the more antioxidants, which are powerful friends to your immune system. Find new ways to get fresh fruits and veggies into you diet — for example, sprinkle berries on your oatmeal, add fresh spinach to a sandwich or snack on some bell peppers with hummus. And skip the processed stuff — foods high in polyunsaturated fats tend to suppress the immune system.
• Let some fresh air in. Crack your windows in the rooms where you spend the most time. This will help circulate the air and get the germs out. 
• Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Sleep deprivation is linked to poor immune function, so do your best to practice smart sleep habits. For instance, try to maintain a constant wake and sleep schedule, even on weekends. 
• Take care of your smile. Good oral hygiene means brushing and flossing each morning and night and going for regular check-ups at your dentist. This will help prevent any infections in the gums and teeth, which can increase inflammation levels in your body and weaken immunity.
• Make relaxation a ritual. Making deep breathing, meditation, yoga or tai chi part of your every day can keep your immune system strong by lowering inflammation-causing stress hormones.

Stay Well at Complete Harmony

From stress management therapies to nutrition and exercise planning, we help our clients feel their best and stay healthy during rehab and beyond. To learn more, call: 866-930-4673.

.

5 Ways Meditation Makes You a Better Person

When it comes to recovering from addiction, meditation can be a great tool to help you mentally push away any cravings for alcohol or drugs or another addiction behavior. But the benefits of this mindfulness technique go beyond staying sober. In fact, daily meditation practice not only helps with recovery, but it can also make the new sober you a better person with a more meaningful and joyful life. Here’s how:

1. You’ll have more self-compassion. Meditation teaches you to recognize and then let go any feelings of doubt or frustration as you go through the ups and downs, successes and failures of life. The result: You’ll be more caring and supportive of yourself on your recovery journey.
2. You’ll be better equipped to handle stress. Do you ever find yourself feeling out of breath or forgetting to breathe when a situation is particularly anxiety provoking? This is pretty normal. The good news: Controlled breathing can help you quell those nerves when you need it most. 
3. You’ll be less angry. Meditation is the perfect remedy for releasing any feelings of anger or resentment – toward yourself and toward others. 
4. You’ll be more forgiving. Meditation helps you learn forgiveness by developing your ability to be compassionate and empathetic. It also teaches you how to heal old wounds, clear mental blocks and manage any past trauma, which are all important parts of forgiveness.
5. You’ll be more self-aware. Self-awareness allows you to better identify what your body, mind and spirit is craving in order for you to live a well-rounded life. The best way to do this is to quiet your mind using meditation. 

Holistic Addiction Treatment  
Complete Harmony offers an evidence-based blend of holistic modalities, alternative rehab approaches and mindfulness practices. We customize care to your personal objectives, religious beliefs and health considerations to help you achieve personal sobriety goals. To learn more, call 866-930-4673.

Can Texting Deter Alcohol Abuse?

According to a first-of-its-kind study published in PLOS ONE, text messaging may very well be an effective alcohol-abuse deterrent. Researchers found that "adaptive-tailored texts” were similar to“in-person moderation treatments" when it came to helping problem drinkers.

The text messages, which were tested on 152 participants interesting in curtailing their alcohol use, factored in age, gender, and specific drinking patterns. There were four types of messages sent daily, according to researchers:

• Loss framed: “Think of all you have lost as a result of drinking too much. Make today a day that sets the stage for change.”
• Gain-framed: “Think of all you can achieve if you can control your drinking. Make today a day that sets the stage for change.”
• Static-tailored: “It’s been three weeks since you signed up.”
• Adaptive-tailored: These incorporated various individual factors, such as participant’s heaviest drinking times.

After three months, participants saw big results: Those who received adaptive-tailored texts reduced their weekly alcohol consumption by 9.64 drinks. In addition, 80 percent of all participants responded “yes,” when asked if they’d like to continue receiving the text messages for an additional 12 weeks.

“Today, text messaging is part of our daily routine,” Frederick Muench, director of Northwell Health’s Digital Health Interventions in Psychiatry unit,” said in press release. “If we could find a way to make this subtle but effective communication help those who are trying to drink less succeed when they need encouragement most, we have created something that can positively impact the 15 million American adults living with an alcohol-use disorder.”

Help for Alcohol Addiction
If you or someone you love has an alcohol abuse problem, know that you’re not alone. Our team has helped hundreds of patients detox and restore their whole body using holistic therapies for symptom management and improved wellbeing. To learn more, call today: 866-930-4673.

Create Your Own Spiritual Ritual Today

Spirituality can be a crucial part of your long-term sobriety. Fewer cravings, increased hopefulness and less anxiety are just a few of the many study-proven recovery benefits. Being spiritual doesn’t have to mean being religious; it’s about connecting to the world around you and believing in something bigger than yourself. 

One way to cultivate spirituality into your everyday is to come up with your own spiritual rituals –and they don’t have to be complicated. It may even be something you’re already doing. The point, however, is to bring consciousness to whatever repetitive acts you do choose. 

According to Time magazine, Ben Franklin woke up every morning and asked himself: “What good will I do today?” and each night, he asked: “What good did I do today?” This simple yet powerful ritual brought intention to his life and his actions. 

What will work for you? Here are a few suggestions to get your mind and spirit working: 

Perform personal affirmations. Whether chanted out aloud or jotted in a journal, daily affirmations can help cultivate spiritual growth and a greater sense of self. Try a few upon waking or prior to shut-eye: 

• “I can handle the recovery tasks ahead of me.” 
• “I will be my best self today.” 
• “Today is a new day filled with hope.”

Make meaningful connections. Something as simple as a weekly social gathering or phone call with a close friend can become a sacred ritual. And the same goes for volunteer work or support group meetings. Just showing up and being able to help someone else can nourish your spirit.

Tap into your artistic side. Take time each day to do something that you enjoy that’s creative. By feeding your creativity you’ll be feeding your spirit. Some ideas:

• Color
• Write a poem
• Cook
• Knit
• Sing 
• Dance

Carve out quiet time. This will give your brain and spirit some much-needed breathing room – to think and reflect on the past, present and future and to assess who you are and who you want to become.

Begin Holistic Addiction Treatment Today

Complete Harmony is proud to provide a long list of holistic therapies that help clients pursue improved wellness during active rehab. To learn more about our alternative treatment options, call us today: 866-930-4673.

Finding Fitness Motivation

Whether you vowed to move more as part of your New Year’s goals or have included exercise in your overall sobriety strategy, you likely know by now that the benefits are plenty. Physical activity makes you happier and less stressed and it also helps fend off some pretty serious health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. 

3 Tips to Stay Motivated

Knowing that something is good for you and doing that something that is good for you are two different things. Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to let exercise fall by the wayside – especially with all of your other recovery to-dos. The good news: You can motivate yourself to make movement part of your every day. Here’s how: 

1. Think movement, not exercise. You can reap the benefits of exercise without hitting the gym. The goal is this: Move more – and that can mean taking the stairs, cleaning the house, or parking further from the store. 
2. Set a date – and stick to it. Whether it’s a daily walk with a friend or weekly yoga class, setting an appointment can help keep you accountable. 
3. Write it down. An exercise journal is a great motivational tool. Start by tracking what you did and for how long (and don’t forget to include household chores) and add it all up at the end of your day. Consider jotting down how different types of movement made you feel; for example, relaxed or reinvigorated or more limber. 

Let Us Help You Find Fitness Motivation
The best form of fitness during addiction recovery is the kind that motivates you and supports your new sober lifestyle. At Complete Harmony, our hybrid addiction recovery program offers exercise planning to strengthen your body during addiction recovery. To learn more, call: 866-930-4673.

Stress Management Is Key for Recovery (and Your Heart)

The fact that stress and heart troubles are related may not be news to you – however, researchers have yet to fully understand the full mechanisms. A new study published in The Lancet this week revealed an interesting link between stress and the heart: the brain. 

Researchers found that people with greater activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain that controls fear, stress and emotion, were more likely to suffer from heart attack, stroke and angina (chest pain) in the future. 

Increased activity in the amygdala was also linked to more activity in the bone marrow tissue – and “that in turn may impact the arteries, causing inflammation, which then could lead to a cardiovascular disease event, such as a heart attack or stroke,” study author Ahmed Tawakol told Forbes.com.

While more research is still needed to understand the entire reaction, Tawakol said that stress reduction exercises have been found to reduce both the size and activity of the amygdala. 

Here are a few things you can do today to manage stress and enhance your recovery: 

• Create a mantra. It doesn’t have to be complicated; a simple phrase like “I am in control,” or “I am making progress” can help keep you calm and focused on your recovery. 
• Go for a vigorous walk. There’s nothing quite like exercise to increase those feel-good endorphins and keep stress at bay.  
• Streamline your day. Over scheduling yourself can quickly lead to stress, especially during the first 90 days of recovery, when you’re most likely to relapse. For now, just focus on recovery essentials and aim to complete one or two tasks per day. 
• Make sleep a priority. Seven to eight hours of solid shut-eye can do wonders to restore your body and mind and improve your ability to cope with stress. 
• Start a journal. Journaling is a great way to discover the source of your stress — and then to release it by writing down your thoughts and feelings.

Find Inner Peace at Complete Harmony
At Complete Harmony, we encourage the use of many different cutting-edge techniques — including yoga, meditation, and acupuncture — to help patients control stress on their journey toward sobriety. To learn more about our treatment center and our approach to addiction recovery, call today: 866-930-4673.

5 Ways to Fight Back Against FOMO

The Fear of Missing Out, or “FOMO,” is dangerous for people in recovery. Defined by Google as “anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website,” this phenomenon has become more and more common amid the never-ending social network posts and apps to check. But FOMO can happen offline, too. For example, if you start thinking about that party your old drinking buddies are at right now.  

FOMO can make you feel sad, lonely, anxious, or envious — and it can trigger thoughts about using again. It can also cause you to obsessively check your social media feeds, which can increase your risk of anxiety and depression, according a new study from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health. 

Try these steps to spend more time enjoying the now and less time feeling a Fear of Missing Out:

1. Start a journal. And keep track of all of things you have or have yet to achieve. This will help you feel more thankful and less envious of others. 
2. Don’t compare yourself to others. Social media makes everyone’s life seem perfect, right? Remind yourself that everyone has personal hurdles and obstacles and that fun Facebook posts or Instagram photos don’t equate a happy and fulfilled life. 
3. Be patient with yourself. It’s okay if it’s too early in your recovery to attend social events or start-up a relationship or complete that marathon. Set small goals and realistic expectations to avoid feelings of shame or self-doubt. 
4. Slow the mind. Practice mindfulness meditation in order to be more present and to slow down and enjoy the everyday moments. This will help you more fully appreciate your friends, family and activities and prevent you from chasing the next “thrill” or event. 
5. Get moving. Physical health is crucial for good mental health. Whether you go for an invigorating walk or hike, exercise can help you boost your feel-good endorphins so you’re less anxious or depressed about the things you may be missing out on. 

Relapse Prevention at Complete Harmony

At Complete Harmony, our holistic relapse prevention plans provide the tools that you or someone you love needs for lifelong sobriety. After recovery, our staff encourages you to continue holistic therapies and find groups and community resources that support your commitment to sobriety. To learn more, call 866-930-4673.